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One year later, Samsung is back with the Galaxy Note8

One year after Samsung's disastrous Note7 launch, the Korean company unveiled the new Galaxy Note8 today. With a screen just 0.1-inch bigger (6.3-inch in total) than Samsung's S8+ and utilizing the same design, the lines between the Note and S series have never been blurrier. Having said that, the Note line is still Samsung's productivity and creativity-aimed line, which means it comes with the S Pen stylus (which appears to be the same thinner-style stylus that came with the Note7) and for the first time on a Samsung device, a rear dual camera setup.

The dual camera setup pairs a 12-megapixel telephoto f/2.4 lens with a 12-megapixel wide-angle f/1.7 lens, giving 2x optical zoom. The Note8 is also the only phone with OIS (optical image stabilization) on both lenses. As with other dual camera setups, the Galaxy Note8 can mimic a background blurring bokeh effect, which Samsung is calling Live Focus. Live Focus lets you adjust the amount of bokeh you want, with an onscreen slider that lets you adjust the amount of background blurring. You can even make adjustments after the photo is taken.

Like the S8, the Note8 will be powered by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor or a Samsung Exynos 8895 processor. Samsung has bumped the RAM up from 4GB on the S8 to 6GB on the Note8, and you also get 64GB internal storage and a microSD card slot that will accept cards up to 256GB in capacity.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung has played it fairly safe with the battery, which is just 3,300mAh, making it smaller than the 3,500mAh battery inside the S8+. The capacity reduction is also partially due to the presence of the S Pen styus which does eat into the phone's internals.

The Galaxy Note8 will be available in mid-September. Local pricing, including pre-order details, will be announced tomorrow.

“We appreciate the relentless passion of the Note community. They’ve been a constant inspiration to us and we designed the new Note for them. From the Infinity Display to the smarter S Pen and the most powerful Dual Camera, the Galaxy Note8 lets people do things they never thought were possible.” - DJ Koh, president of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.